(CNN) - The 16-day partial government shutdown that just ended will be the last, if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky has anything to say about it.

In a pair of newspaper interviews Thursday, McConnell used the same Kentucky metaphor that "there's no education in the second kick of a mule." The Republican Senate leader said the first kick was the 1995/1996 shutdowns and this one was the second. McConnell remained firm that there will not be a third.
"There will not be a government shutdown," McConnell told The Hill newspaper. To the National Review he said "a government shutdown is off the table. We're not going to do it."

It was McConnell and his counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, who negotiated the last-minute deal that funded the federal government and lifted the nation's borrowing limit through early next year. The deal came with mostly-cosmetic changes to Obamacare, after weeks of Republican insistence that the shutdown end only with a major change to the health care law.

"I think we have fully now acquainted our new members with what a losing strategy that is," McConnell told The Hill.

That's not to say McConnell has given up on his distaste for the Affordable Care Act or Republican issues of lower taxes and curbing government spending, he said.

soundoff(70 Responses)

I think @Freedom is that 20% who still likes the Tea Party. Come to think of it, that's still a pathetically high sad number. That means we have 20% of our country that has no sense of logic. Yikes!

October 17, 2013 05:50 pm at 5:50 pm |

The Crux of the Buscuit

The poor are not the ones raping the middle class. It is the Republican Party. A party of idiots, for idiots.......

October 17, 2013 05:55 pm at 5:55 pm |

KrjMc

Did he discuss this with the tea party – I will be amazed if they learned anything whatsoever – I do not think they are capable of a) hearing anything anyone else has to say, b) give a crap about anyone not like them, c) care about the financial well-being of this country, d) really want this country to prosper. They hide behind their conservative ideals and yet have no idea how destructive their methods are to the well-being of others.

October 17, 2013 05:55 pm at 5:55 pm |

Tony

Good news. We need a functional opposition party.

October 17, 2013 05:56 pm at 5:56 pm |

Fish

You see, it's that statement about a government shutdown is a losing strategy that sticks in my craw, this is not about you politicians it's about our nation!!! We don't care about your politics you are our employees do you understand??? Normally an employee answers to the employer yet in this case they dictate to the employer!!! We need not jump through their hoops we must force them just to do their jobs which we hired them to do!!!

October 17, 2013 05:59 pm at 5:59 pm |

Veritas

Read an interesting fact about Obama, brought out in a USAToday Editorial:

"Having voted against an increase in the debt ceiling in 2006 as the junior senator from Illinois, the president now characterizes those opposed to one today as reckless and crazed. Hypocrisy makes for clever politics but bad governing."

October 17, 2013 05:59 pm at 5:59 pm |

LDRP

Will the House change their parliamentary rules back to the pre-shutdown process?

"Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), presiding over the chamber, told Van Hollen that the rule he was asking to use had been "altered" and he did not have the privilege of bringing that vote to the floor. In the ensuing back and forth, Chaffetz said the recently passed House Resolution 368 trumped the standing rules. Where any member of the House previously could have brought the clean resolution to the floor under House Rule 22, House Resolution 368 - passed on the eve of the shutdown - gave that right exclusively to the House majority leader, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia."

October 17, 2013 06:00 pm at 6:00 pm |

Jim

I love how all tea baggers on line names are always "freedom" or some other typical American thing. What an idiot. The tea baggers have finally been exposed to the American public for the what they are. A bunch of low IQ people who don't know which end of the fork to use. Hopefully they will be marginalized as they should and forgotten. This mess had to happen to finally rid of ourselves of these "freedom" fighters who have no clue and only know they have to be obstructionist to the detriment of the country. Good riddance.

October 17, 2013 06:02 pm at 6:02 pm |

Anastasia Beaverhausen

I hope all of you are able to maintain your outrage in November.

October 17, 2013 06:04 pm at 6:04 pm |

Reich

At this point the tea party is an asset- to the democrats.

October 17, 2013 06:04 pm at 6:04 pm |

common sense

Ah, the good old boys' offspring.....stupid is as stupid does.....time...and time.....and time again. You want to hold the american people, and the world hostage because you guys want to do anything and everything to make this presidents term in office complete hell. And for what? We had a deficit problem before Obama took office. Where was the tea party then? Why NOW is it such an issue? The arrogance and ignorance we've had to put up with is something that cannot even be put into words.....ah yes....the good old boys' offspring. So, if a democrat wins the next presidential election, based on this republican party, we should be in for a real treat then. Hey offspring of the offspring of the good old boys. Please try and not follow in your fathers footsteps. You don't have to be a bigot. You don't have to hold the confederate flag. You don't have to be evil. You don't have to hold the world hostage. You can help this country. Not continue to degrade it. Good luck with that sonny boy. Your gonna need it!

October 17, 2013 06:04 pm at 6:04 pm |

Data Driven

@DEAFDUMBBLIND,
"What has happened to our country? More takers than givers, what is the incentive to pull yourself up by the bootstraps to middle class or beyond when you can get it all for free?"

Oh lord, someone call the whaaaambulance.

October 17, 2013 06:07 pm at 6:07 pm |

Tea Pot Heaven

Three weeks wasted, where government employees could have done their jobs, but instead had to sit on the sidelines awaiting the Tea Pot nitwits to throw meat to their base, and moderate Republicans too fearful of their own chances at re-election to say anything about it. These Republican moderates remind me of the Democrats after the 2004 election – fearful of losing more seats.

October 17, 2013 06:07 pm at 6:07 pm |

Sniffit

" I appreciate the fact that he's an old-school pol and not aboard the Nihilism Express led by Ted Cruz."

Sure, he didn't get aboard Derpit the Fraud's Nihilism Express, but he still drove the GOP/Teatroll clown car to Filibusterville so many times you'd think someone was paying him to do it (oh wait...). I have no respect for his record filibuster obstruction and abuse of procedure. None. And when we say "record" in that context, it should be noted that we're not talking about Racer X beating Racer Y's previous 100-yard record Olympic by 0.03 seconds. We're talking about these guys filibustering HUNDREDS more times than ever before recorded in our country's history. It's obscene.

October 17, 2013 06:07 pm at 6:07 pm |

Quixote

My god, has mcconnell regained his senses? Did someone hide the kool aid!

Only the baggers and other assorted imbeciles think the shutdown was a good idea.

Sorry Mitchiepoo, but I'm going to need that in writing from the real leader of the GOPT party, Rafael Cruz.

October 17, 2013 06:14 pm at 6:14 pm |

Dr Tom

@Freedom The President said he wouldn't negotiate about the shutdown. The Senate Democrats had been trying to negotiate about the budget for months but the House refused. But what the President didn't want to hear from the Republicans was = We won't shut down the Government if you give us ......

October 17, 2013 06:23 pm at 6:23 pm |

Indianapolis Guy

@JohnRJohnson – Great comment. It's genuinely scary and sad that people blame the President and repeat all the talking points they've heard from some Republicans and Tea Party members. It is truly irrational behavior and no matter how you explain it to them, their minds cannot be changed. Scary, sad, and irrational.

October 17, 2013 06:23 pm at 6:23 pm |

nonyabidnes2

Mitch McConnell, hey I just got 3 BILLION dollars for my state. What did you get?

October 17, 2013 06:27 pm at 6:27 pm |

Larry

The bad thing about this is that alot of the American VOTERS will believe him. Yep, the parties worked well together just as they promsed in the last election. When are the voters going to realize that they will NEVER work together. The reason is simple: Each part has their own agenda. End of story. This guy needs to retire and take Harry Ried with him.

October 17, 2013 06:38 pm at 6:38 pm |

Tina

@freedom

The losing strategy came from the president – "I won't negotiate!" Just like Hilary – "What difference does it make?!" The worst leadership this country has ever seen.

What an idiot my God! The president got his way. In what sense he lost? This is in my book called winning.
The tea party and as a consequence the rest of the republican party lost. A fact which mature people, like MaConnell
acknowledge because they do not want to lose again. Therefore, if he won, in what way this strategy was a losing one?

You may not like thge strategy is one thing very understandable. But to say that he had a losing strategy is idiotic.

October 17, 2013 06:40 pm at 6:40 pm |

Mancee Grayce

Never again until the next time. Yertle McConnell ad his pet dewlap will do whatever they can to take from the poor and give to the rich.

October 17, 2013 06:44 pm at 6:44 pm |

tired of it

maybe the only hope that we, the taxpaying middle class have is that China cuts D.C. OFF!!!!!

October 17, 2013 06:46 pm at 6:46 pm |

Crystal

All they care about are their principals, which is all well and good, but if you're facing the threat of economic default, then it's not worth it.